Women's Radio Collectives, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
I am involved with a women's radio collective in Edmonton, Alberta,
Canada, at the University of Alberta's campus and community radio
station, CJSR. I have been working on the program as a volunteer for over
a year and a half now and our goals and direction have changed quite a
bit in that time. Also, because the radio station is volunteer-run and we
tend to see a high turn-over rate of contributors -- people join up and later
find they don't have the time or energy because the pressures of a
capitalist society force us to set wage-earning as a priority -- the voices
of women who have taken part have changed over the years.
When I first joined the women's program, which is called "Adamant Eve",
it had quite a mainstream-feminist slant to it, focusing on intellectual
discussion and middle-class women's issues. Because of my commitment to the
program and it's goal of feminism and putting positive images of women onto
the airwaves, I eventually was asked by the news director to fill the position
of producer of the program. I was not exactly comfortable with taking on
that role myself, so I asked another woman to join me and we co-produced.
We worked together at co-producing for about six months. It was extremely
difficult at times, as the contributors to the program became more and
more dependent on us for not only leadership and guidance, but for
telling them what kinds of topics they should be covering and projects
they should work on. As well, we found that there was a general lack of
commitment among some contributors; one could call in at the last minute
saying that she had not completed the segment she had committed to, and
since we were the producers, it was always up to us to fill the time with
something else. We tried to encourage contributors to take the maximum
amount of freedom in self-expression. We continued to re-enforce that our
role was one of guidance and not arbitrary control over the content of
the show. But I think that just that wee-little title of "producer"
connotes authority, no matter how benevolent one tries to come across,
and I think that is what ultimately intimidated some of our contributors.
Because we were 'responsible' for the programming, it often felt like the show
'belonged' to us and that contributors just helped us to fill time. We
tried to get around this by suggesting a 'rotating producer' where a
contributor could take on the role of producer if there was a particular
show theme that she was interested in presenting, etc. No one ever took
the bait, no one volunteered for the opportunity. I felt that if we
could just share the responsibility and decision-making, women would feel
more like the show belonged to them as well, and therefore the commitment to
the program we sought from contributors would follow.
At around the same time, I became much more interested in making the program
in to something more radical than it had been -- or at least adding a radical
element. I wanted to get away from the mainstream-feminist discourse and
start talking about things like anarcha-feminism. I began to do a regular
segment on Adamant Eve, called Vaginal Discharge (I wanted the title to
be as radical as possible, so to alert the listeners that this segment
was equally radical, something different from the rest of our
programming). I used this segment as an expression of my own views on
hierarchy in society, hierarchy in the feminist movement, sexism in the
anarchist movement -- views that my co-producer and other contributors
did not necessarily agree with.
I think it was a good move to break up the monolithic view of feminism that
our program had been focusing on previously, however, it came to this: I
eventually became incapable of dealing with the internal conflict of
espousing anarchism on the air, while holding the position of producer in a
hierarchical structure behind the scenes. I talked to my co-producer often
about becoming a radio collective and eliminating the need for producers,
overseers, etc. She disagreed with me, saying it would never work because
contributors to the program were so dependent on the producers that they
would be unable to take the initiative and responsibility to work
collectively. What did I do? I left the program.
It was a combination of scholastic pressures and shear burn-out which
prompted me to make such decision. Even though working on Adamant Eve had
given me the fulfillment which university studies and p/t jobs denied me, in
that I was actually *doing* something productive with issues that concerned
me as a woman, expressing myself, being *active*, I felt that leaving would
be more beneficial to me than continuing the contradiction to my
anarchist ideals by working as a producer. At the time, I intended only
to take a 'break', and return as a contributor, not a producer.
I returned to Adamant Eve four months later. The woman I had been
co-producing with had continued to produce the program on her own, and by
now was so burned-out that she was not even contributing to the program
any longer, her time taken up solely on running the program. It was no
longer fun for her (which is essential in volunteer work, to keep one
interested), she was no longer excited about radio and so, had a very
difficult time inspiring contributors and welcoming new volunteers ( I
recall a story meeting I attended where a woman interested in joining the
program was discouraged, I am sure, by the producer's lack of enthusiasm
-- she bearly even acknowledged this prospective new volunteer's
presence!).
It was then that I again suggested we try to become a women's
radio collective. This time, instead of leaving such a discussion for the
privy of "one-producer-to-another", I suggested it to everyone at a story
meeting. The other contributors (almost an entirely new crew, remember
the high-turn-over I mentioned earlier) were intrigued by my idea. I
argued that working collectively would spread out the responsibilities
(no one person takes the fall if something goes wrong, no one person is
suseptible to the kind of burn-out a volunteer producer is almost
inevitably going to encounter...) and power in decision-making. This would
ensure that each contributor could feel that the program was equally her own,
that each has an equal input into shaping the program, and hence an equal
stake in the outcome and quality of the programming. We put it to a vote,
our first 'collective' action, and the idea to become a women's radio
collective was unanimously accepted by all present.
I have given the above run down of my 'hysterie' with Adamant Eve to
point out how the hierarchical structure can be counter-productive
(contrary to many pro-hierarchy arguments that it is more efficient).
My work with the program has been my first experience with becoming a vocal
member of my community on issues which concern me (ie. an activist). It has
also been my first attempt at taking part in creating something which subverts
traditional models of leadership. The collective is like an experiment to
me. Can we make it work -- given that we have so little access to
contemporary examples of non-hierarchical organization (this is
especially true in Edmonton, Alberta, where right-wing conservatism is the
order of the day...I am aware that other communities are "miles ahead" in
terms of anarchist organizing)?
The collective has been in existence now for about 5mos. We are coming
along slowly-but-surely. There is a lot of work to be done in terms of
re-organizing, while at the same time, maintaining a weekly radio program
of quality. The sound of the program has changed radically since one year
ago; for example, a lot of times our music features are having to do with
'riot grrrl' -type rock bands, and we try to offer practical
suggestions for alternatives to corporate pharmacuetical and medical
solutions to women's health issues (we have a new health feature
called "The Conscious Cunt" which has dealt with herbal contraceptives
and herbal abortion.). More importantly, our goal has been reshaped as
well. Since we felt that the kind of programming we did in the past was
not always accessible to listeners off campus in terms of being highly
intellectualized "insider"-type discussions of feminist issues, we have
decided to make our show more accessible for women in the community by
focusing on voices of women within the community. We have begun to
establish a network with women's groups in Edmonton, so that Adamant Eve
can be a vehicle of information on local women and activities. We have
also switched to a lot more discussion-type programming (ie.interviews,
group and panel discussions) rather than the book-review/film-review-type
programming that we used to do -- we still include those types of things,
but they are not the main focus any longer. One of our primary goals in
terms of creating an atmosphere of equality within the collective was to
offer the technical training which I see as necessary to empower women to
initiate and follow through on their own projects. This, I think, is also
necessary inorder to get rid of the notion of expertism, which is
ultimately elitism (ie. if I am the only one who knows how to work the
sound board, I hold a certain amount of power over the other women, since
they are forced to rely on my knowledge -- training people makes that
knowledge universal and accessible). As well, we have stopped defining
the program as a feminist program, because we felt that a) the meaning of
that word has become so ambigous, b) such a narrow definition alienates
women who shy away from labelling themselves, and c) our focus is
*women's* voices and experiences, where as feminists can be women *and* men.
When the collective began, our membership shifted again so that I was one
of the only 'veterans' from before. I was charged with new ideas and
suggestions and very vocal. Often new volunteers came to me for advice on
what to do, topics, etc. Because I am still so concerned about taking on a
leadership role (rather, *avoiding* such a role), I suggested that we
implement an "idea jar" (an idea suggested to me by my partner after many
discussions about my concerns regarding leadership). The Adamant Eve
Women's Radio Collective Idea Jar was originally a place where people who
had a lot of ideas for radio projects and little time to initiate them,
could write down their ideas and put them in the jar. On the other hand,
those having trouble coming up with ideas for radio projects, but looking
for a way to participate, could go to the jar to check out what's in
there and take from it any ideas which they were interested in following
up. The idea jar has also become a way for others to participate in our
show, since the jar is in a visible place at the radio station and all
are welcomed to contribute ideas (even men!), the members of the
collective taking what they want from it.
Of course, not everything is running completely smoothly, as there are a
lot of wrinkles still to work out, but what pleases me most is that this
project is finally past the drawing room and into construction. One of
our problems is that women don't always know what it means to take part
in a collective, and sometimes look to me as an authority. When they ask
me "What do you think if I ....", I open it up to the whole group, "what
does everyone think?" Another problem is that the administrative staff at
the radio station don't always know what it means to be a collective, so
for example, when a decision is "passed down" from the program manager,
she often brings it to me (I think it's because I used to be the producer
and because a lot of the administrative staff are not yet completely
familiar with the newer members of the collective) to tell to the other
women....It's difficult to work collectively within a structure which is
not necessarily collective (we're the odd-balls, and sometimes I feel
that everyone else is watching us, skeptically) -- but, on the other
hand, our program does enjoy a certain amount of favour among the staff
at the station because there is such a strong feminist thread in the
administration (the program manager, news director, and administrator are
all women).
I got a lot of ideas and inspiration from a book by Martha Acklesberg
called "Free Women of Spain: Anarchism and the Struggle for the
Emancipation of Women". It is about a group called Mujeres Libres which
formed during the Spanish revolution in the 1930's in order to empower
women to participate more fully in the anarchist society at the time (men
contended that women were equal in theory, but in practice, that was not
always true...). I am completely open to any comments or suggestions that
any one has regarding the radio collective. I am especially interested in
finding out what other women are doing in terms of anarchist organization
and activites.
If anyone is interested in receiving some of our audio material, I would
be willing to send out cassettes (please remember, I am working on a
minimal student budget...). I have a complete series of the Vaginal
Discharge segments I did (which includes an interview with Exene
Cervenka), as well as some other misc. features we have done over the
past year. Recently, we completed a 27:35min. documentary on the hysterie
of the women's radio program at CJSR which goes into more detail on the
collective.
I can be contacted at
email: jsoukup@gpu.srv.ualberta.ca
address: Jana Soukup-Razga
Oliver P.O. Box 35053
Edmonton, Alberta
T5K 2R8
C A N A D A
phone: (403)429-6399
or at the radio station:
Jana Soukup-Razga
c/o CJSR FM 88.5
Rm. 224, Students Union Building
University of Alberta
Edmonton, Alberta
T6G 2J7
C A N A D A
phone: (403)492-5244